viernes, 22 de mayo de 2015

The botanical garden was a large peaceful
place where people did picnics and took pictures of various flowers and
butterflies. Families and couple came because it seemed like a nice place for
them to bond. So when David and Katherine entered the premises, it was obvious
they hadn’t come to appreciate the flowers or bond over anything. His jacket
had bloodstains all over and they looked fresh. She had several cuts on her
face, one very deep and slowly bleeding out. They appeared to have come from a
battle zone and the botanical garden did not seem like the first place to think
about when hiding.

As if they had picked up on how strange they
looked to others in the gardens, Katherine grabbed one of David’s hands. But
this didn’t help at all. It was more obvious now that ever that they didn’t
have any kind of relationship. They were holding hands as if they were grabbing
a freshly caught fish.

They enter the largest greenhouse and there
they were able to rest for a while. People seemed too be more focused on the
beautiful colors and insects than on the couple that had come in. Katherine
touched her face and noticed the blood whereas David took off his jacket and
turned it around. It looked kind of funny but it was better than displaying
blood all over the place.

But still, that did not help that much. After
all, David was dressed in his usual attire, which meant tight jeans,
suspenders, black polo shirt and red boots. Yes, David was a skinhead but, as
he explained to everyone that cared to ask, he was not the “bad” kind of
skinhead. He just liked the ideals, the real ones, behind all of it. He was
used to people staring at him everywhere he went but now wasn’t the time to be
noticeable. With his jacket’s sleeve he cleaned some of the sweat from his
almost bald head (his hair was very short).

Katherine, on the other hand, was a bit older
than him. Not enough to be his mother but old enough to be a grumpy older
sister. But they weren’t related and had just being together at the wrong time
and the wrong place. As a matter of fact, they did not know anything about each
other, except a mad man was chasing them. Katherine grabbed her phone from her
pocket and checked some things very fast. After all, it was her tool of work.
She was a very important part of an advertisement company and she knew her boss
was probably wondering where she was.

After all, she had just left to pick up some
photocopies that were needed in the 5 pm daily meeting. Although she thought
her work was important, it really wasn’t. She was basically and errand girl,
running around with coffee mugs and photocopies and various folders. Her main
task, after all, was classifying every document the company had in order for
their main archive to be in order. She just liked to think it was important because
after turning thirty, every job matters as if it was the best of the best, even
if it’s obviously not.

The couple picked up the pace, went all along
the inner path of the greenhouse and got out of it on the other end.
Fortunately, they noticed there was a different exit than the entrance they had
used earlier. In a very hush voice, David told Katherine the best thing was to
go to a police station and tell them everything that had happened. They would
provide security and the mad man may be even apprehended for following them.
But they hadn’t seen him since they had entered the gardens, so maybe he had
just gave up. At least that was Katherine’s opinion.

They walked slowly, following a brick path
through a forest of palm trees that lead to the other exit. Katherine stated
that it was probably best of they each left for home and just let it go. David
looked at her as if she had lost her marbles and didn’t even reply anything. If
they separated, he was going straight to police station. Maybe they wouldn’t
believe him, it had happened before. But after the mess that man had caused, it
was going to be very difficult for the police not to believe him.

As they got closer to the entrance, they
realized two things: the man was on the other side. He had apparently not seen
them yet but he looked oddly calm and controlled, very different from his
display at the stationery store. The proof was that both David and Katherine
started to tremble as soon as they had seen him and hid behind some bushes. The
woman then agreed that they had to get to the police so she took out her phone
but wasn’t able to dial because someone kicked her hand. It was the mad man.

He looked enraged but controlled. It was very
scary to see such a normal looking guy with so much evil in his eyes. He was
holding a gun with a silencer and told them that he would shoot if thy
screamed. He then advised them to stand up and walk in front of him, slowly. He
would put the gun away but advised them not to run away or he would pull it our
fast and shoot them both in the head before anyone could catch him.

Katherine and David stood up and complied. The
group came out of the botanical garden as if nothing was happened but anyone
that would noticed the twitching in David’s eyes or how sweaty Katherine’s
hands were, would instantly now that something strange was happened. As the man
had told them, they walked in front of him slowly, just as if he was a friend
and they were there with him. But they didn’t even talk so the image was even
stranger than one would think. They crossed the street and the man told them to
board a red car that was parked on the sidewalk. They looked at each other
before doing what the said.

Inside, the car was incredibly hot and the
leather seats were not helpful. The man boarded too and put the gun on the
dashboard. Soon, started the engine and he drove, without telling a word to
them. He looked straight to the road, not moving his wide-open eyes for
nothing. It had to be said: he was a very good driver, even letting old women
cross at the corners and cleverly avoiding buses and trucks. He didn’t look
like the man they feared.

A couple of hours earlier in the stationery,
that man had been waiting for some photocopies too, or at least that’s what it
looked like. Katherine had come in because of work and David had to pick up
several pages of a book that he wanted to read carefully. He had just begun the
career of social studies at the university and wanted to nail every class to be
the best social worker he could. Each one of them was there, minding their own
business. It was when two petty thieves entered that it all went insane.

Those two attempted to steal the money but, in
the process, hurt people all over the store. They pushed Katherine towards a
glass structure, which broke and cut her face and shoot a little boy and his
mother, whom David tried to help when the men weren’t watching. It was when one
of them tried to drag one of the girls that worked there to a storage room,
that the mad man acquired his nickname.

Without even hesitating, he pulled out his gun
and shot one of the guys in the head. His body collapsed right there, for
everyone to see. He then ran to the storage room and grabbed the other man by
the hair. He had his penis out but hadn’t raped the girl, who was lying on the
floor, crying. The mad man put his gun on the thief’s mouth and pulled the
trigger. Everyone screamed. Then, people thought an even crazier man had
rescued them and that they could go. But, what was his business there with a
silenced gun?

The man was aware people were scared of him
and decided to take Katherine by the arm. She had been helped by another woman
with her wounds but the man stopped that. He took her as a hostage because, in
his mind, people had turned against their savior. David tried to talk to him
and even got him to say a few words. For a moment there, it seemed he
understood what had happened and that if he released Katherine nothing would
happen to him. Everyone would say to the police how much of a nice man he had
been by saving that girl from being raped and all of them from being hostages.

The
man released loosened his hands and Katherine took that moment to step on his
foot and run outside. David, stupidly, followed her. And now they were hostages
again, in his car, going who knows where. The man didn’t say a word until they
had left the city. He took the car through an open field and then parked right
in the middle of it.

He came out of the car, taking his gun with
him. As he walked on the moist grass, he looked up. Some stars could already be
seen. Then, he pointed the gun to his head and shot himself. The couple in the
car where just to scared to scream.

jueves, 27 de noviembre de 2014

It was dark and rainy outside. It had been raining for almost two days, non-stop. It seemed like it never end.

Inside the hospital, only some patients were aware of the weather. One of them was Alfred, Alfie if you went by what his mom called him. She had been there some hours ago to tell him how the family was going. He had been absent from home for almost a week and things, as expected, had continued without him present.

He was sitting on the leather sofa the room had by the window. He couldn't see much from the outside but he felt better feeling the raindrops and the cold through the glass rather than being laying on the bed. He had no need for more sleep and would have loved to have a book, his computer or something to distract himself from the hospital.

But then again, his books were at home and his father had forbid his mother and siblings from taking anything from the house for him. And his laptop had been destroyed in the "accident", or at least that was what the policemen that had visited him said.

So, he only had the rain to spend time with and, after the first minutes it was already a bore. And the memories of the "accident" settled in every five seconds... Accident! How dare they say it had been an accident. Since when is a brutal attack considered an accident? The laptop was smashed to the ground, that is after they had used it against Alfie. His head was still hurting after that. They had kicked him several times, punched him, hit him with his laptop and they even spitted on him.

He went to the bathroom and looked at his scars, again. It was something of an obsession looking at the scratches on his face, the bruised skin all over his body and his now funny finger. He had no idea how or why but that one finger was always cold, as if it was dead.

A little bit embarrassed with himself, a stupid notion, he opened his robe and saw more bruises and scars from both the attack and the operations. They had told him he had being hit on the pelvis severely so that's why his that part hurt more than any other. Not that he was interested in having children or anything like that but he did plan to use his penis again. The doctor said he wasn't sure of the state of his reproductive organs and that further tests were needed to know if would all work again as usual.

Alfie walked back to his bed and sat there, grabbing his feet. Doctor Mason told him that same morning that he had been in a very frail state and they even feared for his life but, thankfully, the procedures and medications had call worked perfectly. Although he wasn't the fittest guy around, his body had healed almost completely very fast. His immune system was incredible, according to one of the nurses.

But that didn't fixed it all for him. What if those two men had hit him with a baseball bat or cut him with a knife. The police said they normally didn't use guns but who they might be exceptions to the rule.

He wasn't scared anymore. He had no real reason to be. He was more worried about the consequences of it all. His father now had even more reasons to be against him and no so-calle frienda had cone to visit. He felt really alone. His mother didn't count because he knew she too was worried about her husbands attitude and she had no intention to contradict him.

Alfie decided to think about something else, other than his father, but that was to no good. He had just realized of the amount of info that had been lost for the foundation. He had been trusted with a very important report and now all that work was gone. They had destroyed it all: cellphone, hard drives, usb devices and, of course, his laptop.

As he laid down on the bed, he thought that only a few coincidence were necessary to be lost forever. He never stayed that late or liked to be entrusted with so many responsibilities but that week it was all different because he had decided to go on and live by himself. He knew the costs were barely affordable but he didn't mind at all. He jus wanted to be a bit more free, more in charge of his life.

He stepped out of the Rainbow Foundation at ten o'clock at night and walked to the nearest bus stop. He had sensed someone close or watching but he ignored it until a tall, bald guy stopped him a block away from the bus stop, asking for the time. Well, he wasn't really interested in that.

The rest was all a blur. He remembered parts and pieces but not the whole puzzle. Then he woke up and they told him he had been on the hospital for three days.

His father had always been against him working for such an organization and now he had all the reasons to hate all about it even more. He disapproved of Alfie and that hurt him every day. But there wasn't much to do about that. Alfie had moved on from trying to impress his dad, to not caring what he thought of his son. It just didn't mattered any more.

Two days passed until he was allowed to leave the hospital. When got home he told his parents about moving out. He wasn't asking for anything, just letting them know.

He did move out a month after after the attack. The foundation had not blamed him for the lost data and congratulated him for his work and effort. It was no.mystery all of it was a good thing for them as fundraisers began to invest money in them in the light of such a vicious attack on "the foundation".

He didn't really care about all of that. They gave him a big bonus on christmas, gave him a raise and a better position. He was happy for all of it until the police came back, in order to interrogate him. They had captured a group of skinheads that had been blamed for various hate crimes in the city and they wanted him to see them, in order for them to be sure they were the ones.
Well, at least one of them was. Alfie confessed he only saw one of the guys, so he could only be sure of that.

After that he went home, his new home and thought of the face of the attacker and all the good that one bad action had in his life. The guy had no idea but he had made him better, stronger to face life's many challenges.